I may be a few years ahead of you down the learning road, but probably not as
far down. Here's my advice
Time is the biggest asset, ao use it wisely.
A distro like Mandrake or Red Hat is all very fine for getting you going, but
poor for learning. Here's why. I have Mandrake 8.0, and the following sort of
thing is there
[root@genius /bin]# ls -l vi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 Jun 29 16:02 vi ->
/etc/alternatives/vi*
[root@genius /bin]# ls -l /etc/alternatives/vi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Jun 29 16:02 /etc/alternatives/vi
-> /bin/vim-minimal*
[root@genius /bin]# ls -l /bin/vim-minimal
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 398780 Mar 26 2001 /bin/vim-minimal*
[root@genius /bin]#
These sort of knots frustrate learning, because everything is three times as
awkward as it should be. Get an LSB compliant distro - at least all the
directories will be in standard places that way.
Forget repeated kernel builds, and experimental stuff unless you want to code
it. You have power in linux with an understanding of scripts and what you are
going to use. Sendmail? Postfix? Networks? Kernels are handy enough if you
know what your hardware is, and read the help. Set goals; implement them
using dual boot, and never reinstall windoze.
--
Regards,
Declan Moriarty
Applied Researches - Ireland's Foremost Electronic Hardware Genius
A Slightly Serious(TM) Company
Success covers a multitude of blunders - G.B. Shaw.
On Thursday 20 December 2001 03:06, you wrote:
>
>
> I am a SysAdmin, but mainly management, and in an NT/Exchange
> environment. I will never get good at Linux as a result of hands on,
> day to day work. I have experience only with RedHat but have not used
> the GUI except for when I have to, as I want to learn the
> command-line. With books open in front of me, I have solved problems
> for which Linux was the solution, such as when my ISP sent out an
> upgrade which nuked my MS Internet Connection Sharing for my home
> network. I set up RH 6.2 as the gateway and downloaded Roaring
> Penguin PPPoE. It took me a month to figure it out, with my whole
> family yelling at me to restore their desktop Internet access. Talk
> about surly users. I think Linux has a place, even in today's
> coporate Microsoft environments. I learned how to set up and manage
> newsgroups, for example. I am having a lot of fun doing it.
>
> I sense that to learn what it is all about, I need to practice a lot,
> compiling and recompiling kernels (I don't know anything about
> programming beyond the Hello World stuff; basic shell scripts) and
> figuring out how to download/install different applications. I'd like
> to learn VI, Emacs etc., as well. In order to be innovative and try
> to introduce some features that Linux offers in my work environment,
> I'd like to be able to use the NSA secure kernel.
>
> RH basically sets itself up, which is good. But having described what
> I want to do I'd like to solicit feedback on which variety of Linux I
> should try, and maybe specific "projects" that I could work on to get
> a good, well-rounded view of Linux. I could use either an old laptop,
> or P-133 in the corner from work. Thanks in advance for any ideas.
>
> Kurtis
>
> `--------------- Forwarded message (end)
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